The Phoenix Witch

Chapter 12

Christine's P.O.V

Tension and brimming power filled the room as I walked in, the royals all seated around the U-shaped conference table. The silence embedded with anger and dread was finally broken by my nan, now in full queen mode 'Before we discuss the events that occurred today I want to make sure my kingdom is protected' She paused turning to the general of Terra, and continued 'double the protection detail, have our best witches ward every entrance and enforce a curfew, I don't want to see anyone in the streets after 9, now go and don't allow anyone to enter this wing until we are done. ' the general quickly nodded and scattered away.

The uncomfortable silence returned trying to engulf me but it was soon broken by the king of werewolves- I really should learn his name- exploded. ' We cannot risk giving the Esecta to this mongrel, it could be used for unimaginably horrible things!'

'And what of the warning he issued? We cannot let an innocent die because of us' Drake voiced.
'Do not talk of saving innocents, vampire when you feast on them' the king growled making a wave of power flow across the room, My body tensed in anticipation of a brawl but before it could advance a sweet and strong voice interrupted,
'Father, calm down, I'm sure we can come to with a reasonable solution once we know everything they haven't told us ' I turned to the person sitting next to the king, to see a beautiful woman with river-like jet black hair fading into silver, a heart-shaped face and brilliant grey eyes, one look and anyone could tell that she held the power to destroy you.

'Your daughter speaks the truth Maximus, you must hear all the sides of the story before making a decision you will regret' Jordan said sounding less like an ass and more like a friend. Maximus... Sounds familiar I thought before a bulb lit up in my head and I remembered hearing his name in one of our sessions. Finally, after some contemplation, he seemed to calm down and said 'Very well, explain', It was an order and no one dared defy it. All eyes turned to Aurora as she started the tale of the creepy shadow man,
'As you may have guessed, we know who the man that attacked the castle is, he was someone the wronged a long time ago and someone that we believed to be dead. He is from a rogue organization called the Red Circle, which was determined to overrule the council and have power over all the creatures. He was but a simple man when he came to us, wanting to become a soldier in our armies. He excelled in his training and soon became one of the most powerful and ranked soldiers we had. But soon everything went astray, his team was assigned to collect an important artifact from a rogue, and all his team members were killed leaving him as the only survivor. At the time all evidence suggested that he killed his team from greed for the artifact and that he was a part of the rogues. So, as per our rules, we tortured and interrogated him but learned nothing crucial. We believed he was dead when we left his body but we didn't know that he was saved and had been recruited into the Red Circle. We soon found out that this organization had spies all over the council, that was how they had fabricated evidence to look like he did the killing and hatched a plan to eradicate them, we thought it went successfully and no one had survived but clearly, that wasn't the case.'

A hush fell across the room, our minds processing what she said, It was common knowledge in the underworld of our creatures that the council was corrupt but this had just shown me how irredeemable they were and how much I didn't know. Everyone seemed as shocked as I felt and finally, Will asked 'You gained nothing from torturing that young man?' No emotion across his face except a hint of disgust seeped into his words.
'No, we did not result in anything fruitful, only his pleads of being innocent' she said looking as still and stoic as a rock. How could she do that? I wondered, talk about torturing a man and live with the guilt of turning a man into something so monstrous.

How do you live with yourself?

A dark part of my mind whispered, and it took everything in me not to shiver and crawl into the safety of my bed. I shut that part off and distracted myself by letting my nagging curiosity overcome me.